China Box Office: ‘Napoleon’ Defeated in Middle Kingdom Campaign, Opens in Fifth Place

Patrick Frater
·2 min read
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Ridley Scott’s historical epic “Napoleon” was cruelly defeated at the mainland Chinese box office, where it opened in only fifth place on its opening weekend.

Chinese crime thriller “Across the Furious Sea” headed the mainland China charts for a second weekend, earning $20.0 million (RMB142 million), according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway.

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“Napoleon” earned just $2.8 million ($19.6 million) in China, according to the firm whose figures are generally considered as final, not estimates.

The film earned generally mixed to positive reviews, but only a middling score of 6.6 out of 10 from users of the Douban movie fan site. But it appears that Chinese audiences found the travails of an ancient French emperor to be too much of a specialist topic. Ticketing firm and data provider, Maoyan showed that “Napoleon’s” viewers in China were two thirds male. It also forecasts that the film will end up with final revenues short of $5 million.

“Across the Furious Sea,” on the other hand, is mainstream Chinese fare. It is adapted from a well-known novel, directed by Cao Baoping and stars Huang Bo and Zhou Xun. After nine days on release (it was only given a Saturday outing, a week earlier), “Furious Sea” has a $64 million cumulative.

Second place was taken by “So Long for Love,” a sentimental drama about a young woman coming to terms with her father’s death, supported by her pet dog and slowly coming to understand her mother’s choices. Directed by Wang Xiaolie, it earned $11.9 million (RMB84.4 million) in its opening three days.

Third spot was taken by “Trending Topic,” which had a Thursday release. The iQiyi-backed drama, directed by Xin Yukun and starring Zhou Dongyu, Yuan Hong and Song Yang, earned $5.7 million between Friday and Sunday and $6.5 million over its opening four days. 

Japanese animation, “New Dimension! Crayon Shinchan The Movie: Battle of Supernatural Powers – Flying Sushi” held on to fourth place in its second weekend. It earned $4.5 million for an $11.4 million nine-day cumulative.

Aggregate nationwide cinema revenues were $55.1 million over the weekend. That lifts the year-to-date total to $7.23 billion. Artisan Gateway calculates that to be an 80% increase over a COVID-stricken 2022 and 14.9% behind the same point in 2019.

November was worth $237 million (RMB1.7 billion), a 200% increase on November 2022, but 10% below November 2021. “The Marvels” was the top Hollywood film of the month, earning just $15.5 million (RMB110 million).

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